Just before a viral illness such as the flu or COVID-19 worsens, bodies start producing more inflammatory biomarkers, and the concentrations of these biomarkers in bodily fluids increases. Therefore by continuously monitoring these biomarker concentrations on our skin’s surface, doctors can spot such turns for the worse and act immediately, preventing complications and saving lives.

That’s the idea behind the latest development work being done at Xsensio, which has just been granted CHF 1.8 million by the European Innovation Council (EIC) to adapt its Lab-on-Skin™ technology so that it will detect biomarkers specific to viral inflammations. Only 36 of the 1,400 funding applications were selected for the EIC’s two-year funding program, intended to support the fight against COVID-19.

Simultaneous and Continuous Biomarker Measurements

“Our highly miniaturized Lab-on-Skin technology means we can create biomarker-sensing patches that operate continuously, which could be an important element in the future of healthcare,” says Esmeralda Megally, Xsensio CEO. While existing wearable health-monitoring systems measure only physical signs, Xsensio’s system gives immediate readings of biochemical indicators — the same indicators that are currently analyzed in blood samples sent to a lab.

The Lab-on-Skin patches each contain a tiny computer chip (just 5 mm on a side) that could hold thousands of miniature sensors coated with different biochemicals depending on the type of biomarker to be detected: proteins, electrolytes, metabolites, or specific compounds. The bodily fluid collected by the patch is carried to the sensors via capillary action through a microfluidic system. The results of the patches’ analyses are immediately sent by Bluetooth to a smart-phone app where patients and their doctors or, in some cases, athletes and their coaches, can view and store them. The miniaturized components require very little energy thanks to their structure; depending on the application, they can run anywhere from one day to one week.

Xsensio’s engineers developed the miniaturization technology in association with EPFL’s Nanolab. The patches’ small size, along with their ability to accommodate different biochemical surfaces, means the Lab-on-Chip system is modulable and can be used in a variety of monitoring situations. Xsensio had already developed other applications for its wearable technology under an EU research project on analytics for high-level athletes and an 18-month joint R&D project with one of the world’s 10 largest biopharma companies.

“Over the next two years, we will work on developing sensors specifically for viral inflammations and on configuring our system so that the data it generates are reliable enough to be used in medical applications,” says Megally. “We made a strategic decision to orient our development work towards the medical industry, with its high standards for reliability and accuracy. That said, our system could also be used for broader healthcare applications like connected watches.”

Xsensio was founded in 2014 and will soon move into EPFL’s Innovation Park. The firm plans to take full advantage of two key trends that are set to grow: connected healthcare and miniaturized, flexible electronics that can be worn on the skin.

This article was written by Cécilia Carron, EPFL. For more information, visit here  . A video of the technology is available here  .

Topics:
Anatomy Biological sciences Computer software and hardware Diagnosis Diseases Fluids and secretions Ingestibles and Lab-on-a-Chip Medical Medical equipment and supplies Medical, health and wellness Medical, health, and wellness Sensors and actuators Smart Patches and Bandages

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    Transcript

    00:00:00 [Music] extension is dedicated to solving one of the biggest challenges in healthcare the lack of continuous real-time health and wellness data the world is increasingly adopting wearable technologies from professional football players who are trying to optimize

    00:00:23 and increase their performance to clinical trials that are testing new drugs the wearables that are being used relate to physical data not health data that you would typically get with a blood test so at accenture we're developing a unique wearable sensing platform that we call

    00:00:41 lab on skin and the goal of our lab on skin sensing platform is to track biochemical data continuous in real time and in a minimally invasive way and what we're leveraging as technology is fet sensors the skin patch is connected to a mobile phone and once it's applied on the skin it

    00:01:02 starts to collect biofluids in a continuous way and track its content in real time we can have hundreds and hundreds of sensors and what we do in-house is that we functionalize these sensors to be able to detect a wide variety in the future of bio from electrolytes to metabolize to proteins to hormones

    00:01:23 all this in a continuous way with real-time updates to the mobile phone so we have just been granted a 1.7 million euro grant from the european union to use and leverage our sensing platform to detect inflammatory markers in our biofluids very early on so these inflammatory markers can occur because for example a

    00:01:44 side effect of immunotherapy drugs during cancer treatments or when there is infectious disease and there is an advanced stage for example for curving 19. we're also going to test our platform and our first generations of wearables on athletes professional athletes to be able to see

    00:02:02 how we can really help them go to the next level in [Music] performance you